My Little Bird
by T3h Toby-Chan
Summary: Post ROTK, Legolas spends time with his young daughter, while reflecting on his desicion to leave to the havens. *OneShot, finished*


*Author's Note: I thought of this fic a long time ago and finally just stayed up late to write it. I hope you like it, so please review! The idea may have been done before, but I swear, I thought of this myself. It's open-ended, so I'm not continuing it.  
  
*Disclaimer: I don't own any characters except for Aiwe.  
  
The sun shone through the tree branches, as Aiwe stretched out on the grass by the stream side. She ran her fingers along the tops of the flower stems and found a smooth flat stone. She recognised its shape for just a moment and with a flick of her wrist sent it skipping across the surface of the rippling water.  
'How beautiful she is,' Legolas thought to himself, staring lovingly at his small daughter. 'I don't know how I should ever find it in myself to leave her.'  
The girl turned around,  
"Ada!" she sprung up from her spot, and ran as quickly as her tiny legs could carry her, leaping in to her father's arms. "Oh Ada! I missed you! Did you bring anything from Rivendell?" She spilled out her words while clinging tightly around his neck. Legolas closed his eyes and stroked her hair gently, welcoming and returning her embrace.  
"As a matter of fact, I did bring something from Rivendell." He reached into the pouch that hung around his waist and took out a red leather bound book, "It's from Lord Elrond. You can use it to practice your runes." The elfling took it and fingered the indented lettering on the front.  
"It says my name on it!" She squealed with pride, and hugged her father again, "Thank you, Ada!"  
"Thank Elrond. He bound that book just for you." She nodded and smiled, her eyes shining brightly.  
"Let me show you the ducks!" She grabbed his wrist with one hand, and clutching the book with the other, hopped down the bank, Legolas obediently following. She led him around trees and over stones and towards a thicket of low hanging vines and branches, where the ground was worn down by the feet of adventerous elflings of years long past.  
"Here!" She instructed him to kneel down, and pointed over the water. "Over there you can see the nest! But shhh. They may be sleeping." The elf gazed over at the loudly quacking family of two ducks and more than seven ducklings.  
"They hatched last week!" Aiwe proudly annouced, watching the troop waddle through the sandy banks and into the lazy current. "Can we keep one? I want to let it sleep in my bed and feed it from the table and be my friend forever." She gave a pleading look into her father's eyes.  
"Little bird, I don't think that would be possible. Ducklings need to grow. They will become big someday, but they need their parents to take care of them."  
"Oh," she said, "So their mommy and daddy stay with them forever and ever?" Her question seemed to strike a nerve in him. He paused for a moment, and answered,  
"No. When they grow up the mommy and daddy will let them go and live on their own."  
"When will that be, Ada?"  
"Well..." He looked at her, "It may be different for every family. I guess it depends on what happens." The child nodded understandingly, and sat to leaf through her book.  
Legolas shifted his eyes from his daughter, to the nest, and back again. 'Someday they must leave.' The conversation echoed in his mind. His conference with Elrond also replayed in his memory...  
  
"I can't stay here, Elrond! Too much has happened. Too much have I seen. Middle Earth holds nothing but sorrow for me." He paced the carpet before the fireplace.  
"What of Aiwe and your wife? Don't they bring you joy here?" Elrond asked. The younger elf cast his gaze towards the ground.  
"Ay, they do. I feel they are the only reason I don't leave for Valinor right now."  
"And isn't that reason enough? To stay and raise your only daughter?"  
"I wish I could, My Lord, that I do. But my purpose can't be fulfilled in the state I am in. Do you really think I could make a good father?"  
"With every fibre of my being, I do. Even in your troubled heart, there is room enough for your life's only love. Stay. Aiwe needs you. To grow and prosper, she needs you with her until she comes of age." Elrond spoke with all the wisdom of his years, which resonated in his every word.  
"I don't cast aside your judgement. You would know of these things far more than would I. But what you do not know is my plight of torture. Middle Earth once seemed so great to me; so large and mysterious and indestructible. In my years of late, I came to see it revealed to too harsh of a reality. Life is so delicate, and as is the fate of this world. I can't bear to wait here and see the things I believed constant to whither away."  
"And I know how you feel, for Celebrian had similar sentiments before she left for the Havens. I knew the pain she felt, and let her leave, for I could not bear to see her so. She loved the children dearly, but knew I could care for them, and trusted to meet them again one day when the time came that they, too would sail to Valinor."  
"But Arwen..." Legolas realized.  
"Yes, that is what I mean. It has been years since Arwen was swept over by the hand of death. I still haven't entirely healed from it, and I probably never will. But Celebrian was never even able to see her grow, or marry, or make the voyage across the sea. She will never see her child as a grown woman. That is why I advise you to stay, even through your trouble. If you leave, you may never see your precious child again..."  
  
"Ada!" Legolas felt Aiwe tug on his sleeve. "Ada, it's time to go inside now. We can come see the ducks again later, I promise." He stood up, warily among the low branches, and followed the elfling back along the trail towards the large home adjoining the palace.  
'If I were to stay,' he thought tentatively, 'I might become king of Mirkwood, and Aiwe would enjoy the life of a princess.' He remembered his position to the crown and shook the thought off. Being the youngest, he could never hope to recieve the throne.  
The little girl skipped merrily ahead of him, chattering about what things he'd missed while he was gone, how Mother and all her friends were doing, and about how they would go to see the ducks every day and watch them grow up.  
'Sweet innocent child.' He mused, 'May the Valar bless her to stay that way. The poor dear could not possibly understand at her age why I must leave.'  
"Ada, is something wrong?" Aiwe stopped and turned around.  
"No, love. Nothing, now that I'm with you." He walked up to her side, and set his hand around her shoulder, walking alongside the winding stream. "Everything is fine."  
That night, he crept quietly into her room where the silver moon flowed through the window and over her sleeping figure. He simply stood there and admired her child-like beauty as she slept, with her eyes contently gazing into the distance, relflecting starlight. He sat beside her, trying ever so carefully not to disturb her sleep, and reached over to stroke her flaxen hair, as he tried to memorize everything he could about her. This gorgeous and profound being; he saw himself unfit to even be called her father.  
He leaned over to kiss her forehead and whispred mildly,  
"We may watch the ducks grow together for just a short while longer." 


End file.
